English for Competitive Exams – Odd Man Out Practice Questions with Key

Many changes have been effected in the English section of the bank recruitment exam paper in recent times. New items like ‘Multiple Errors’ and ‘The Odd man Out’ are included and it goes without saying that you have to
put in lots of practice to crack the exam. The questions are also useful for various other exams like UPSC, APPSC, TSPSC, SSC CGHL etc.

ODD MAN OUT:

Under the ‘Odd Man Out’ item, each question is like a small passage, comprising Five sentences. Read them carefully and separate them into two groups. The four sentences which are thematically relevant and connected make up one group and a complete and meaningful passage. The one sentence which is not thematically so relevant and connected is the Odd Man Out. It is like a biker from a by-lane joining a rally of cyclists on the main road. These new pattern questions are time consuming and are meant to test your mettle. Only focused practice is needed to answer
them and score maximum marks. Here are some model questions prepared as per the new pattern for your practice.

Directions (Q1-10): In each question FIVE sentences are labelled as a, b, c, d, e and only four of them make a complete and meaningful paragraph. Pick out that one sentence (Odd Man out) which does not fit into the theme/ passage.

1. a) Early horses such as Hyracotherium, which lived 55 million years ago, did have multiple toes.
b) These horses were much smaller animals.
c) Horses have great memory power.
d) A recent study at Harvard University, the USA, found that one broad hoof is almost as strong as multiple smaller toes but much lighter.
e) Natural selection has gradually discarded the horse’s side toes and widened the middle one.
1) c 2) d 3) a 4) e 5) b

2. a) Dirty air is making us ill.
b) In fact, 40,000 premature deaths per year can be attributed to poor air quality.
c) As a step to clean up air, the UK government has decided to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040.
d) But experts feel that the deadline is not soon enough.
e) In India we have many new and expensive models of cars and vans.
1) d 2) c 3) e 4) b 5) a

3. a) According to one recent survey, there are over five trillion pieces of plastic in the world’s oceans.
b) This plastic soup covers an area twice the size of the continental United States.
c) As plastic moves through our seas, it breaks down into smaller pieces that can easily be swallowed by marine life.
d) And the problems continue beneath the surface.
e) Plastic toys and domestic furniture items are everywhere.
1) e 2) c 3) a 4) d 5) b

4. a) Kubera is no longer worshiped today as he once was in ancient India.
b) He is the pot-bellied king of the Yakshas and associated with great wealth.
c) He is often known as the treasurer of the gods.
d) There is a poor man in our street and his name is Kubera!
e) We learn of Kubera for the first time in the Shatapatha Brahmanas, a ritual manual.
1) d 2) e 3) a 4) c 5) b

5. a) Ants are highly social insects.
b) They work hard as a team.
c) Good communication skills lie at the heart of their success.
d) They rely heavily on chemical scents to defend territories and exchange complex information.
e) Many people eat ants.
1) e 2) c 3) a 4) b 5) d

6. a) The Supreme Court’s verdict legalizing passive euthanasia owes much to the Aruna Shanbaug case.
b) Aruna Shanbaug, 25, was a nurse in the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Mumbai.
c) On November 27, 1973 Aruna was assaulted by a sweeper.
d) During the assault she was tied with a dog chain around her neck which cut off oxygen supply to her brain and left her in a vegetative state.
e) Medical experts have hailed the Court’s verdict.
1) e 2) c 3) d 4) b 5) a

7. a) Epicurus was a Greek philosopher who was born in 341 BC.
b) He founded a school of philosophy.
c) Food lovers are often called epicureans.
d) Epicurus had a different view of sensual pleasures.
e) He was a fierce critic of religion.
1) e 2) c 3) d 4) a 5) b

8. a) The Indian Meteorological Department says that both the Telugu states will witness severe summer this year.
b) Coastal Andhra region is going to have the worst summer, the Department says.
c) The core heat wave zones in Telangana will also be under the grip of heat wave for more days this years, the Met people have said.
d) According to them, this time the average temperature would be above normal.
e) We wear cotton dresses in summer.
1) d 2) c 3) e 4) a 5) b

9. a) Till the nineteenth century, nobody really knew much about food.
b) Nobody knew how food was used by the human body.
c) Nobody knew why some kinds of food were more nourishing than others.
d) Taj Hotel is one of the oldest hotels in Hyderabad.
e) Not even Greeks-who laid the foundations for so many other branches of science had given any serious study to food and nutrition!
1) e 2) d 3) a 4) c 5) b

10. a) The year 2017 marked fifty years of the ATM services across the world and 30 years of the ATM services in India.
b) The ATM was the brainchild of John Shepherd-Barron, an English banknote printing specialist.
c) Banks collect ATM service charges from customers.
d) He sold his idea to Barclays Bank and the first ATM started on 27 June 1967 in a suburb of London.
e) India’s first ATM came about in 1987 in Bombay.
1) c 2) d 3) a 4) b 5) e

Key / Answers:

1-1, 2-3, 3-1, 4-1, 5-1, 6-1, 7-2, 8-3 , 9-2, 10-1.

SBI POs Reasoning Model Questions with Answers

Directions: (1-5) : In each question below are given three statements followed by three conclusion numbered I, II and III. You have to take the three given statements to be true even if they seem to be variance with commonly known facts. Read all the conclusions and then decide which of the given conclusions logically follows from the given statements disregarding commonly known facts. Then decide which of the answers (1), (2), (3), (4) and (5) is the correct
answer and indicate it on the answersheet.

1. Statement: a. Some teachers are professors.
b. Some professors are readers.
c. All readers are rectors.
Conclusions: I. Some readers are teachers
II. Some rectors are teachers.
III. All rectors are readers
1) None follows 2) Only I follows
3) Only II follows 4) Only III follows
5) All follows

2. Statement: a. Some papayas are guavas.
b. Some guavas are carrots.
c. Some carrots are mangoes.
Conclusions: I. Some mangoes are papayas
II. Some carrots are papayas.
III. No papaya is a mango.
1) Only either I or II follows
2) Only either I or III follows
3) Only II follows 4) Only III follows
5) None of these

3. Statement: a. All bottles are glasses.
b. All drums are bottles.
c. Some cups are bottles.
Conclusions: I. Some glasses are cups.
II. All drums are glasses.
III. Some bottles are drums
1) None follows 2) Only I & II follow
3) Only II & III follow 4) Only I & III follow
5) All follow

4. Statement: a. All tablas are sitars.
b. All sitars are harmoniums.
c. All harmoniums are violins.
Conclusions: I. Some violins are tablas.
II. Some violins are sitars.
III. Some harmoniums are sitars.
1) All follow 2) Only II follows
3) Only I follows 4) Only I & II follow
5) None follow

5. Statement: a. Some stations are ports.
b. All shops are stores.
c. No port is a store.
Conclusions: I. Some stations are shops.
II. Some stations are stores.
III. No shop is a port.
1) Only I follows 2) Only II follows
3) Only III follows 4) None follows
5) None of these

Directions (Q.6-10): Study the information given below to answer these questions.
(i) A school held competitions for Chess, Table Tennis, Carrom, Kho-
Kho and Volleyball during the annual sports week from Monday to
Saturday, each game on one day, one day being a rest day.
(ii) Carrom competition was held not on the first or on the last day but was held earlier than Table Tennis competition.
(iii) Kho – Kho competition was held on the immediate next day of the Table Tennis competition day.
(iv) Chess competition was held on the immediate previous day of the rest day.
(v) Kho – Kho competition day and Volleyball competition day had a twoday gap between them.
(vi) Volleyball competition was held on the immediate following
day of the rest day?

6. Which of the following was a rest day?
1) Wednesday 2) Tuesday 3) Friday 4) Thursday 5) None of these

7. Kho – Kho and carom competition days had a gap of how many days between them?
1) Nil 2) Two 3) Three 4) Four 5) None of these

8. On which day was the Chess competition held?
1) Thursday 2) Friday 3) Monday 4) Wednesday 5) None of these

9. Which of the following is a wrong statement?
1) Carrom competition was held on the immediate previous day of Table
Tennis competition.
2) Kho – Kho competition was held on three days after the day on
which Volleyball competition was held.
3) There was a gap of three days between the days on which Chess
and Table Tennis competitions were held.
4) There was a two days’ gap between the rest day and the day on which Carrom competition was held.
5) None of these

10. Which of the following is the correct statement?
1) Kho – Kho competition was held after Table Tennis competition
2) Chess competition was held on Thursday
3) No competition was held on Wednesday
4) Table Tennis competition was held earlier than Chess competition.
5) None of these

11. Four of the following five are alike in a certain way and so form a group. Which is the one that does not belong to that group?
1) Cricket 2) Football 3) Polo 4) Carrom 5) Hockey

12. In the word CONTRACTUAL, the positions of the first and the eleventh letters are interchanged. Similarly, the positions of the
second and the tenth letters are interchanged, and so on up to the positions of fifth and seventh letters are interchanged, keeping the position of sixth letter unchanged, which letter will be the third to
the right of the sixth letter from the left end?
1) U 2) N 3) T 4) A 5) None of these

13. In a certain code, LATE is written as $%#@ and WIDE is written as τ © Δ @. How is DIAL written in that code?
1) Δ@#$ 2) Δ@%$ 3) Δ©%$ 4) Δ©%# 5) None of these

14. What will come in place of the question mark (?) in the following series based on their positions in the English alphabet?
DGH JMN ? VYZ
1) PRS 2) QST 3) OQR 4) ORS 5) None of these

15. If in the following set of numbers the first and the third digits are interchanged in each number, which number will be second
if arranged in ascending order after interchanging the digits?
583 645 396 287 469
1) 583 2) 645 3) 396 4) 287 5) 469

KEY : 1-1 2-2 3-5 4-1 5-3 6-2 7-5 8-3 9-4 10-1 11-4 12-2 13-3 14-5 15-2.

Answers with Explanation
1. 1; Statement (a) + statement (b) gives no conclusion […I + I = no conclusion] Hence, conclusion I does not follow . Again since statement (a) + statement (b) gives no conclusion, therefore we can’t relate teachers and ;rectors either. Hence conclusion II does not follow. Again conversion of statement (c) gives conclusion ‘Some rectors are readers’. Hence, conclusion III does not follow.

2. 2; Statement (a) + statement (b) gives no conclusion [… I + I = no conclusion]. Hence conclusion does not follow. Again , since statement (a) + statement (b) gives no conclusion, we can’t relate
papayas and mangoes . Hence conclusions I and III do not follow. But these two conclusion make a complementary pair ( IE-type) . Hence either conclusion I or conclusion III follows.

3. 5; Statement (b) + statement (a) gives conclusion II […A + A = A ] Hence, conclusion I follows. Again statement (c) + statement
(a) gives conclusion ‘Some cups are glasses’ [… I + A = I]. Now conversion of statement (b) gives conclusion III. Hence conclusion III follows.

4. 1; Conversion of statement (b) gives conclusion III. Hence conclusion III follows. Again statement (b) + statement (c) gives conclusion ‘All sitars are violins’ [A + A = A]. Now, conversion of ‘All sitars are violins’ gives conclusion’ All tablas are violins’
gives conclusion I. Hence, conclusion I follows.

5. 3; Statement (b) + conversion of statement (c) gives conclusion III [ A+ E = E]. Hence, conclusion III follows Statement (a) + statement (c) gives conclusion ‘Some stations are not stores’ [I + E = O]. Hence, conclusion II does not follow. Again, ‘Some stations are not stores’ + All shops are stores’ gives conclusion ‘Some
stations are not shops’ Hence conclusion I does not follow.

11. 4; Others are outdoor games.
12. 2; CONTRACTUAL
LAUTCARTNOC
Third to the righ of the sixth letter from the left end (6+3=) 9th letter from the left and, ie., ‘N’

13. 3; Letters : L A T E W I D
Code : $ % # @ τ © Δ
∴ DIAL = Δ © % $

14. 5; PST
D +6 J +6 P +6 V
G +6 M +6 S +6 Y
H +6 N +6 T +6 Z

15. 2; 583 645 396 287 469
385 546 693 782 964

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